The Future of Robotics Hype, Breakthroughs, and Challenges with Professor Russ Tedrake

In this episode

Host Kara Miller sits down with Professor Russ Tedrake, a leading researcher in robotics and AI at CSAIL to explore the rapidly accelerating world of humanoid and intelligent robots.
Tedrake takes us behind the scenes of the robotics revolution—from the cultural resistance and skepticism, to the moment everything shifted. Today, major tech leaders are declaring humanoid robots “the biggest product in human history.” But is that true? Is it hype, or are we on the edge of a real technological turning point?
They explore why COVID fundamentally changed how the world views automation and robotics, and dive into the hardest technical challenges in robotics, revealing why the real world is nothing like chess or chatbots. We talk about how AI, control theory, and physical dynamics must work together to create true intelligence, and discuss why humanoid robots may soon become as common and transformative as smartphones. Finally, we examine the growing gap between digital intelligence and embodied intelligence in the physical world, and what it will take to bridge it.

 

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About the speakers

Russ Tedrake
Professor, EECS, Aero/Astro, MechE

Russ Tedrake received his BSE in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan (1999) and PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT (2004). After graduation he spent a year with the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department as a Postdoctoral Associate. Now, Tedrake is a professor at MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research focuses on underactuated motor control systems in animals and machines that are capable of executing tasks and interacting with uncertain environments. Some of Tedrake’s awards include: NSF CAREER Award, MIT Jerome Saltzer Award for undergraduate teaching, DARPA Young Faculty Award in Mathematics, and named the Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellow.